National Park Service outlines local cuts for this summer

Picnic trash, 3,000 bags of it, is removed every weekend from Kittatinny Point in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, according to Park Superintendent John Donahue.

BETH BRELJE

Picnic trash, 3,000 bags of it, is removed every weekend from Kittatinny Point in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, according to Park Superintendent John Donahue.

But not this summer.

The popular recreation destination, parking area for hiking to Sun Fish Pond and canoe access, will be closed as part of sequestration — the government's order to federal agencies to reduce annual budgets by 5 percent.

Milford Beach will also be closed, including the beach, picnic area, boat launch, canoe access, parking lot and the McDade Recreational trailhead.

Trash is the reason the park cannot simply close the visitor's centers and keep the gates open to these facilities, as it trims $473,224 from the 2013 operating of $9,464,480.

Park management cut from some of the most popular destinations because that is where they spend the most money, Donahue said.

Smithfield Beach is more popular than Milford Beach but there is a fee to get into Smithfield Beach and they did not want to lose the fee money, Donahue said.

“We're approaching the sequester as if it will be a permanent situation,” said Donahue, who earns $155,500 annually. Local golf may also take a hit in the budget trimming. The NPS will “Most likely not be able to perform maintenance of the golf course this year,” Donahue said, although they are still trying to make a final decision on that. “It was a huge expense last year,” Donahue said.

The historic golf course, one of the first in the nation, surrounds the Cliff Park Inn, bar and restaurant. The facility closed abruptly in October 2011, and the NPS has been searching for a new lease holder to repair and operate the damaged inn and facility. Local golfers have worried the course would be ruined if its delicate greens were not maintained.

The Pocono Pony bus service, which has provided free rides for park visitors, kayaks, and bikes as an experimental program for the last three years will be curtailed this summer. Although it is not part of the sequester cuts, transportation funding has dried up. The bus will only run on holiday weekends. Friends of the Delaware Water Gap are seeking money to get the bus back to a daily service Donahue said.

Trash cans will no longer be provided at Buttermilk Falls, Cadoo Access, Flatbrookville in New Jersey and at George W. Childs Recreation Site. Visitors to those sites will be required to take their trash with them when they leave. Donahue is concerned that it will mean more litter in the park.

“We cannot tell you there will not be negative effects from the cuts,” Donahue said. The NPS will now spread the word about the closures and reduced services to the New York City and Philadelphia markets, in English and Spanish, so the touring public knows, Park Spokeswoman Kathleen Sandt said. The park is in the middle of a $430,000 re-signing project along Route 209. The project, to replace or add a total of 337 signs, is part of a larger, $3 million traffic safety project that park officials are implementing starting this year. It would have been enough to make up for this budget cut, but that money is from the Federal Highway Administration and not part of the park's operating budget. Projects like this, or perhaps road work or roof repair on a building, will continue as grant money comes to the park for special projects, Donahue said.

Normally the park hires 37 seasonal workers but because of the sequestration, only 20 will be hired this year.

The NPS has 102 employees in the park. Of those, 79 are full time.

At last count, 24 of those full-time employees earned more than $80,000 annually and eight of them have incomes over $100,000.